The Media

[TechTMW]

Here is a PERFECT EXAMPLE of the shaped puddle of goo syndrome -

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8976742/

Indeed...and here's a perfect response:

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net ... u=sideways

OMG That's awesome!!

[Mag7C]

Here is a PERFECT EXAMPLE of the shaped puddle of goo syndrome -

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8976742/

Indeed...and here's a perfect response:

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net ... u=sideways

That site has some pretty good stuff.

[High_Side]

Blame the media if you must, but the responsibility lies with the idiots who ride like complete twats on public roadways. Nobody needs a TV to witness a jackas$ cutting through dense traffic at a 100km over the limit. The media will sensationalize whatever they can get their hands on, but the fact of the matter is people see this kind of stuff all the time on the road.....and it pisses them off more than if they are at home on the couch watching it!

[TechTMW]

I realize all sport bike riders aren't like this, but the other day on my way home from work one passed me in the left lane of a divided 4-lane highway doing a wheelie while standing on the back pegs. I was going the 65MPH speed limit and he passed me with no problem. He was still doing the wheelie when I lost sight of him.

This is why I will NEVER buy a used sportbike.

Can you say "Oil Starvation!?"

[sv-wolf]

Here's two examples I remember from the sixties.

A leading British processed food producer started a series of adverts selling frozen peas that assured the 'housewife' that only the smallest, tenderest peas went into their product. The ad showed all these cute little peas bouncing in to the packet, but the big ugly peas were kept out. 'Not you, cannonball' was the catch phrase. Anyone old enough to remember this?

The story behind this was that the processer's growers had had a crop of very small peas that year.

After the advert had been out some weeks, the company did a survey which showed that the huge majority of housewifes 'knew' and had 'always known' that small peas tasted better than big ones. The power of suggestion! The marketing gurus know just how the human mind is wired up and know exactly how to exploit it.

Here's another. A comapny that made shaving foam had falling sales and excessive stocks of the stuff, so they took the plastic tops off their aerosols and replaced them with funny plastic monster heads. They then remarketed the stuff as 'Crazy Foam', the new sculpture toy for children. The parents bought the stuff by the cartlooad and the kids sprayed shaving foam all over the house and down their throats. Needless to say when stocks were reduced the product mysteriously disappeard off the market.

I got these stories from a marketing insider. He told them to me with great relish as fine examples of the genius of his trade.

And of course the same sort of thing goes on all the time in the political arena, only the techniques used are even more sophisticated. The U.S.A. government and business corporations have fascinating manuals which instruct them on how to manipulate the public mind to make them docile and conformable. The Australian government piked up on these techniques big time about ten years ago, and now I see signs of them coming here to the U.K.

I don't know much about how the bike trade works but I'm willing to bet my last pound that they manipulate the market in exactly the same way as other companies. So, although I guess Bruce is right that it takes a crazy to rtide crazily on the roads, the marketing guys - tha magazines principally - do a great job of creating an atmosphere and a set of cultural values which encourage this behaviour and make it acceptable within certain groups of consumers.

If you know how a teenager works, it is not difficult to encourage stupid behaviour and relieve him of his cash. Bikes are primarily marketed as fun, leisure items. Imagine what would happen to sales if companies decided to market them as sensible commuter vehicles so long as the rider invests in proper wet weather gear to stay comfortable, and realises that he is taking an additional risk with his life.

[CentralOzzy]

The Australian government piked up on these techniques big time about ten years ago, and now I see signs of them coming here to the U.K.

EH?

[moshee]

But the overall feel I was left with as the show ended was that sportbikers are inconsiderate "Donut Holes" with an ego. Which I know applies to very few. (

Unfortunately, many of us have witnessed sportbikers doing their stunter thing. I've been passed by on the freeway by a stunter doing a wheelie at 80+ (I was going 70). At a middle school in my area, a guy pulled a wheelie about the time all the kids were let out.

The sportbiker/stunter crowd are doing just fine by themselves ruining the biker image. They don't need the media.

As for the egos, the sportbikers on this forum seem to be more mature. However, check out some of the pure sportbiker forums and you'll find the "donut holes" where riding a high powered motorcycle automatically makes you an expert. Many of the riders only have one or two years of experience. They can tell you all about advanced racing techniques, based on a couple of track days or attendance at a racing school.

Are they fast riders? Hell yes, just look at the latest ticket they got on their latest ride. Courage? You bet, they dumped their bike in a turn going..........

I gave up on the sportbike forums and if I post at all, its in the non-motorcycle related topics.

Marketing is directed at the macho power, performance, image type of thing. Doesn't have to be that way though. Remember "You meet the nicest people on a Honda"? Oops, showing my age now!
_________________
Ifa Forum

[sv-wolf]

The Australian government piked up on these techniques big time about ten years ago, and now I see signs of them coming here to the U.K.

EH?

Certainly did! For the last ten years or so, the Australian government and business community has been increasingly using the highly sophisticated American Model to manipulate public opinion. At root, it's very simple. A totalitarian society is unsuitable for running a business-oriented economy. Democracy works, but only if the establishment manipulates public opinion to keep it relatively docile. Madison, whose ideas and values were largely responsible for framing the American consititution was strongly of the opinion that you had to control what the mass of the population thought. During the First World War American government began to put a lot of serious effort into researching ways of manipulating the opinions of the electorate. Labour gains in the inter-war period stimulated American business to follow suit and the 'Mohawk Valley Formula was evolved. Today, keeping the American population in line is a multii-billion dollar industry.

The idea is to quietly indoctrinate the population from birth in establishment values. This is done through schools, colleges, community organisations and the media, including Hollywood. The story of how the business community influenced thes institutions to promote their interests is fascinating - if scary. They system allows a degree of debate in the media to give an illusion of free speech and free thinking but the limits of the debate are set by the limits of disagreement within the business community. It's very effective and mostly you don't realise it is happening.

I'm pretty cynical about politics, but I was shocked when I discovered just how well organised this process is. There's no secret about it. It's all very well documented - if you know where to look.

[Ham Hock]

What a coincidence, I was just watching "Mad Max" for the umpteenth time. Remember the one where the villans are the motorcycle gang?

[BuzZz]

That's interesting Wolf.

So is that why so many Americans are so rabidily(blindly?) patriotic? These government opinion forming techniques(mind-control?) ingrained from birth causing the populace to be so ferociously America-centered? One good thing I've noticed over the last decade or so, is that many Americans are far less arrogant about it. It's almost like some of them realized that there is a whole, much bigger, portion of the planet that resides outside thier borders.....

I'll tell you one thing for free..... we could use some of them manuals here in Canukville. As over-the-top as America's attitude can be, ours is so understated and meek as to be embarassing.